The invention described herein relates generally to disposable cuvette rotors and more particularly to an improved disposable multi-cuvette rotor which can be conveniently injection molded of two parts and joined together by ultrasonic welding, and because of its uniquely shaped configuration, exhibits advantages over cuvettes heretofore known and allows their greater utilization at reduced cost.
Such disposable cuvette rotors find operational use in a miniature fast photometric analyzer of the type more specifically described in an article entitled "Development of a Miniature Fast Analyzer," Clinical Chemistry, Vol. 18, No. 8, August 1972. In such analyzers, centrifugal force is used to transfer and mix samples and reagents previously loaded into a multi-cuvette rotor by rotating the same. A stationary photometer scans the cuvettes during rotation and generates a multiplicity of signals representative of the reactions taking place in each of the cuvettes following the mixture therein of the samples with the reagents. The signals thus generated are evaluated by a computer which allows the reactions taking place to be observed as they occur. These analyses are fast, reliable and substantially error free because all chemical reactions are initiated simultaneously at the time of their transfer and mixing, and are coupled with the continuous referencing of the spectrophotometric system of the analyzer; thus errors due to electronic, mechanical, or chemical drift are minimized, if not eliminated.
One of the limiting factors in the commercialization of such fast analyzers has been the multi-cuvette rotor. Most cuvette rotors have been relatively large and of complex structure, normally comprising three or more parts and, secured together by various means such as by being bolted together or fastened to one another by adhesives, glues, or the like. Such rotors have been expensive to manufacture and to use and, because of their cost, they were undesirable. The rotors also had to be cleaned thoroughly and entirely in between analytical runs in order to avoid contamination of subsequent samples.
A need therefore has existed for a disposable relatively low-cost multi-cuvette rotor that will be both inexpensive to manufacture and inexpensive and convenient to use in such a fast photometric analyzer. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a disposable low-cost multicuvette rotor for use in a miniature fast spectrophotometric analyzer. More specifically, it is an object of the invention to provide such a disposable multi-cuvette rotor that may be conveniently injection molded of two parts from a transparent material of suitable chemical and absorption characteristics, which parts may thereafter be conveniently joined to one another by ultrasonic welding techniques.
Other objects of the invention will become more fully apparent upon examination of the following description in light of the appended drawings.